Hermana Madison Ward's Testimony

Hermana Madison Ward's final email from her mission:

Well there is one scripture that describes how I am feeling right now. It is found in 3 John 13&14.

 

"I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name."

 

I believe this sums up the feelings that I have. I would like to bear my testimony one last time as a missionary though;

 

I can't quite begin to tell you how much I have learned here in this little part of Virginia that I have been in for the past 18 months. I would have never guessed how much the Lord had in store for me here. Virginia will forever have a tender spot in my heart. I love this place for what it has helped me become. Through my experiences here I have been able to truly come to understand the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know without a single doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was called to restore the Priesthood power back on this earth today and in turn he restored the Church of Jesus Christ. I have come to know this through The Book of Mormon which is pure evidence that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration. I can't deny the spirit that I feel everytime I read The Book of Mormon. I know it is true. I have received answer after answer and guidance in that book. I encourage EVERYONE to read that book and to truly find out for themselves if it is true. I love praying to know if The Book of Mormon is true because every single time I receive a positive answer to my question. Through The Book of Mormon I have also come to know my Savior and older brother, Jesus Christ. I know it testifies of Christ and I can literally feel his helping hand when I search the scriptures. Our happiness is up to us in this life. God is the same, always and we are the ones who need to come unto Him and change ourselves. I promise that we will be much more happier if we just submit to His will. I love this gospel and I am grateful for the person I have become here on my mission. I can't put into words how much my mission means to me. I love my Savior and know he lives. I know that this is the true church. I love you all and thank you for the support you have all given me through this time. I wouldnt have been able to do it without all of you. I love you.

 

God be with you till we meet on FRIDAY!!!

 

Besitos,

Hermanita Ward

The Christensen Capers: Life and Death

The Christensen Capers: Life and Death

A couple of things

I don't know if anyone still looks at this........since no one ever posts anything but I just wanted to let you know that my mom and dad started a blog so that we can see things that are going on in their mission the site it  

bonnieboo49.blogspot.com
So go check it out they already have some pictures on there!


Ok so the second thing I have to say is that I made one of my recipies from grandmas cookbook while I was at my moms a while back and it was so nasty........I might have messed the recipe so let me just tell you the right way to make it.

It is the Pumpkin Pie Crunch.......and it is so good if made right:)

1 can of solid pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt.........this is where I went majorly wrong!
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1cup butter or margarine
whipped topping

Then the steps are all the same:)  SORRY if anyone tried to make this but try it again this way and it will taste like it should!

In the Blink of an Eye

So much has happened in the last few years in the Darrell and Diana Christensen family that we feel like those years have gone by in the blink of an eye! And now we have even more news to report. On June 17th 2011, Jeremy proposed to his LONG-time girlfriend Junnel DeGuzman. They are ENGAGED!!! Many of you have met her and therefore understand why we are all so elated! We have grown to love her dearly and are very excited for her to officially join the family. They are planning to marry in 2012 (yes, another Bear Lake year) so stay tuned for the date. That means that all of our children have married within four years of each other! We never expected that since their ages are spread over eight years. But life is so unpredictable.

VERY soon there will be another addition to our family too as Katie nears her delivery date (July 30th!). We really can't express just how excited we are for that! Darrell and I are absolutely beside ourselves at the thought of being grandparents! That's another thing we never expected! Talk about time passing in the blink of an eye! Although we are excited to be grandparents we certainly don't feel old enough. We may look it but if so, we are in denial about that. We still see ourselves as young and sexy (we were sexy once, weren't we).

We are so very thankful for our family, including all of you! We really are so very blessed and are excited for all the wonderful things that the future holds for our family. It kind-of seems like we are on a roller coaster ride, and the thrills just keep coming. We know that the same could be said for all of your families as well.

Much love,

Diana

Sky Movies Action & Adventure UK - NEW IDENT - 2011

This fall some family friends got hired to do a commercial for some big UK movie company. They needed 100 horses and some "wranglers" so Shawn and his brothers went a long for the ride! They shot their part in Monument Valley.....and even though they are brief (at the very begining and end) I thought it turned out kind of cool. Shawn is the first cowboy in the last scene to come onto the screen. Anyway I just thought I would share:)

Yay! We're pregnant!!!

Cayle and I are soooooo excited to announce that we are expecting a baby this summer! Official due date is July 30th! I am currently 16 weeks and everything is going well... we don't know what the sex is and we aren't going to find out until his/her birth :) Here is the ultrasound pic from about 13 weeks, and the belly pic is from 16 weeks!

Love and miss you all!

A Beautiful Day for a Wedding

Happy New Year, everyone! We love you all and look forward always to the next time we can be together. 2010 was a wonderful but busy year for our family, with two weddings, a 50th anniversary party for Diana's parents, Bear Lake, Katie finishing her credential program, along with many other fun and exciting trips and events. We are slow posting pictures from Heather's wedding, but here they are. It was a wonderful couple of days made even more wonderful by having many of you there. We love you!

It was August 5, 2010 a beautiful day for a wedding....

The happy couple sealed for Time and all Eternity in the Oakland Temple.

Joy

Family

Beautiful

Best Cousins

Best Friends

Family is Forever

Silly...

Maddy caught the bouquet!

Mr and Mrs Barney

Following the ring ceremony

Yummy cake!

Beautiful Grandma & Beautiful Heather

Our Little Girl

Sisters

Our beautiful girls.

Bonnie cutting a rug with Brett.

Greg and Maxine; the kind of marriage Brett and Heather can look up to and aspire to.

What a wonderful family. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

The newest family member

Our little family is so excited to introduce our newest family member. Krew Owen was born on October 11th at 2:42 am (Grandma Jill was sure excited since he now shares his birthday with her). He was 7lbs 5oz and 19.5 inches long. He is such a bundle of joy! He is the 52nd great-grandchild. We are so excited for all of you to meet him. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss and love you all. Love Clint, Whitney, Tyan, and Krew.

We just wanted to thank all those who were able to come and share Nickolaus and Theresa's special day. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family. It was so nice to have so many of you here and we are now looking forward to Heather's wedding and Bear Lake! Here are a few pics of the wedding!

Theresa was (is) so pretty!

Hugs and kisses and skizzy?

Eating our delicious dinner sprinkled with confetti!

The grandkids

And the gazebo that the guys helped Darrell put up. We are trying to decide which project to do when you come out for Heather's wedding!

Christensen Bear Lake 5k/10k

Calling all runners/walkers! I (with the help of my family) am organizing a Bear Lake 5k/10k road race. It will be Tuesday, August 17 at 7 am. Please spread the word so we can get as much of the family involved as possible. I will be working on getting some awards, etc. Let me know if you are interested.

Hope

Congratualtions to Heather! Sid and I are so excited for Nick and Theresa's wedding. We are anxious to see all of you that are going to be there.

Many of you know that I have had a busy year with my family. Starting off the New Year with Quinn Matthew Christensen's birth on January 11th. He is almost 4 months old already and is he a cutie!!! For more updated pictures, who'll have to visit Kyle and Talia's blog.

We also celebrated Kyle's 26th birthday

Then up to Alaska I went for the birth of Kassidy Claire Johnson, March 24th. She was just 2 weeks old here, check out those beautiful eyes!

About 5 weeks here. (Holly made the head band, cute, huh?) Sid and I have been blessed with some incredibly good looking grandchildren and oh so sweeeet! :)

Then my little Kenadie and her parents Garrett and Holly came to San Diego for a visit! Yeah, we love visitors, especially when they are as cute as this:

Kenadie, who is 9 1/2 months old here was such a big helper picking strawberries, oranges and she picked our first tomatoe(and ate it)

We also had fun hiking together

and going to the beach together

Oh how I love being a Grandma!!!

My 21st Birthday! :)

Hey Everyone!! This is Heather..

I had a really exciting birthday, and thought I'd share some pics!

This is me opening presents..

This is me blowing out candles on my beautiful cake...

This is me cutting the cake.....

This is one of the presents I got..!

And this is my new FIANCE!!! :D

Yes I'm engaged! His name is Brett Barney. :) We don't have a permanent date yet, but hopefully somewhere towards the end of summer. I'm excited for everyone to meet him when you all come out for Nick and Theresa's wedding in May! I love you all!! :)

Heather Feather

Happy Birthday Grandma Phyllis

Phyllis Money Christensen born February 4, 1926

celebrated her 84th birthday
with us

We spent the first full day at Balboa Park
In museums

Eating
Enjoying the beautiful outdoors

Then we went to Coronado Island and ate at Miguels Cocina across from the Hotel Del Coronado

Isn't it beautiful?

The only 2 things Grandma wanted to do while she was here was to go to Disneyland and the Temple
SO
the next day we went to the Temple

BUT

Much to our dismay, it was closed

SO

we did the next best thing,

We went to the Beach

Grandma wants to let you all know how much fun she's having

Doing a little shopping and walking around the Carlsbad Inn

And watching the sunset over the Pacific

Yea, it's time to eat! We ate at our favorite fish place, the Fish House Vera Cruz

Then February 4th finally came and off to Disneyland we went, but first, a stop at California Adventure
Grandma may not like bugs

but Dave does

Bonnie and the Cars want to say HI

We all agreed that Flying Over California was our favorite ride


this is a close second

Then Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to Disneyland we Go

I think this is my favorite pic
aren't they so cute!?!

Guess what ride this is?
If you said, It's a Small World,

you are correct!


We ate at the RainForrest Cafe in DowntownDisney and celebrated Grandma's birthday with a song and a small dessert so we could go home and have this:

It was late but we had to have her birthday cake on her birthday!

Dave pooped out and went to bed but the rest of us rejuvinated in the Spa
We all slept very well that night and rested up the next day and then we went out to dinner to our favorite Italian, Filippi's Grotto, Oh Yum!
Grandma's thinking, Do I have to eat all that?

Saturday, Nick and Teresa and Tyler and Marina came over and Dave and Sid cooked a fabulous breakfast for all

Too bad we didn't get a picture of all the Avacado's but we did happen to get Susan picking Oranges

She was so cute with those oranges

Here is the gang eating, one more time

before we say Goodbye

A special thanks to Susan for all these great pictures and for flying down from Washington to be with us, and for Todd and the kids for letting her come. Another big thank you to Dave for driving Bonnie and Grandma the whole way! Thank you for coming, we will always treasure these memories! And to all the rest of the family we want you to know that you are always welcome!

Goodbye